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Monday, July 13, 2009
Analysis shows Social Media Releases generate double the coverage
We have evidence that Social Media Releases work based on feedback from bloggers in a Text 100 survey noting that they prefer SMRs. But does that mean SMRs actually generate greater pickukp of your story?
Yes.
Just ask Adam Parker, CEO of RealWire, a UK-based wire service that offers a Social Media Release option. In a post today on his Show Me Numbers blog, Parker analyzed 997 releases his company distributed from December 2008 to May 2009, 71 of which were SMRs. The results suggest that the SMRs earned double the coverage of traditional releases.
Double. As in twice as much. 200%. Double.
Here’s the chart from Adam’s post:
Adam acknowledges that a regression analysis of the data shows that the mere nature of an SMR only accounts for a sliver of the difference in how SMR and traditional releases performed. But he’s fairly convinced of the reasons SMRs outperformed traditional releases:
I would suggest that the most likely reason for the improvement in performance of SMNRs is that the additional investment needed to produce a SMNR means that clients are more likely to use them for the most interesting stories. It is this investment in quality that then pays dividends with the features of the SMNR allowing the user to enhance that storytelling and so produce the improved results.
Among the implications Adam sees for the study results is the idea of fewer stories more creativelyi told to the right people. The data suggest, he says, that “investing more in the telling of a story through a Social Media Release seems to lead senders to focus on the stories that generate the most interest editorially and from bloggers.” Since PRNewswire’s own research shows that more than half of traditional press releases distributed never get written about, the SMR could be the path to better coverage.
It’s incredibly encouraging to see results like these.
